On the Eve of the State of the Union...

… which I won’t watch, again. As little point as I see in using my time listening to political punching and counter-punching, from a lame duck president this reality-TV drama seems an even bigger waste of my time. Then tonight and tomorrow we’ll be treated to being forced choose which narrow slice of right or left wing real estate we’re going to inhabit.

I never liked forced choice questions, A or B, True or False, Good or Evil. I don’t live in a black and white world; mine is a (fuzzy) shades-of-grey world-view. Thus, I find there are no easy answers and am increasingly suspect of those who claim to have a monopoly on the truth, be they Islamic radicals or Fundamentalist Christians, right-wing Republicans or left-wing Democrats, Clint Eastwood or Michael Moore …..

Life is no longer simple (if it ever was), probably (at least in part) because people are complicated. Seldom, if ever, do we really have an either/or situation, at least when it comes to how we feel about something. While our personal choices may often appear to be a forced choice, if we’re honest with ourselves we’ve had a variety of paths to take before arriving at H-Hour.

Why do I have to go “all in” on an issue? Are you really telling me I can’t support both the 2^nd Amendment and background checks? That I must pick between the 1^st Amendment freedom of (pick one of the 5) and reasonable limits that protect society? Can I not support the police and those who are concerned about whether “black lives matter”? Can I not appreciate the service and sacrifice of our military men and women and have concerns about where and why they are deployed?

On these big issues we seem to be at the mercy of the absolutists and extremists who take no prisoners, admit no middle ground; they manipulate issues and events trying to force the majority of us into their particular small corners. We are also at the mercy of those political consultants who energize voters and contributions by polarizing every issue. And we wonder why Congress can’t find any middle ground?

I almost envy those who live in their narrow black and white worlds. It cuts down on listening, thinking, analyzing, concluding. I’ll finish by sharing a meme that has been posted by both conservatives AND liberals and the cartoon (above) that seems to sum it all up.* Have we finally found something we can all agree on? Nah….

* You might also try to check the cartoon on the mast-head.

Guns & Safety, Part 2

We visited Orlando's Sea World for a day at the tail (not a whale’s tail) end of our vacation. Had I read about the new movie Blackfish in advance of that trip, I wonder if I’d have attended at all. But I digress (already).

That Sea World, located in Stand-Your-Ground Florida not far from Sanford, had virtually no security (or even posted signs that I noticed) to keep concealed weapons out of the park did not make me feel at all secure. To be fair, though, I also didn’t really think about that fact until I saw the canine security team patrolling the audience at the Shamu show. That actually did make me feel slightly more secure until I decided that team probably was aimed more at those who would protest the treatment of the whales than any actual concern for the safety of the audience. 

Someone else’s ability to legally carry a concealed weapon doesn’t make me feel any safer. Before the eye-rollers lose their vision, I’m not trying to undo what is now the law in all 50 states. I am arguing, however, that those of you who want to feel more safe by carrying a loaded lethal weapon actually make me feel less safe. 

Of course, I’m not a criminal and, in theory, am unlikely to do anything that would make a person carrying a concealed weapon draw it on me. However, I have no control over what the person walking or driving next to me might do, and your need to “stand your ground” over some perceived (or even real) threat does nothing to ease MY fears. 

Still, it seems to me that those who would brook neither restriction nor even discussion of what might be reasonable limits (background checks anyone?) on Second Amendment rights fail to recognize the irony that their need to feel safe by carrying a concealed weapon not only makes me feel less safe, but that my feelings don’t count compared to theirs.

    I will concede, however, that the ubiquity of “conceal/carry” laws has done one thing to make society at least a tiny bit more civil, if not necessarily safe. For my small part, I have put my “trigger finger” (no, not the real one that I’ve never used to fire a gun) in a permanent holster as I drive and confine my opinions of other drivers to mostly private mumbling and grumbling. Hey, I never know if the idiot who cut me off or ran the red light is carrying or not and could perhaps feel threatened by such a visible demonstration of my thoughts. 

On Guns & Safety (Part 1)

On Guns & Safety

For obvious reasons, the issue of guns, regulation, availability, safety, etc. has reared its head (again) and demanded our attention (again).

Disclaimer: I belong to a minority so small we don’t even have a support group: American males who have never fired a gun (not even a BB gun). Neither do I feel particularly deprived, either culturally or emotionally, by my utter lack of experience in this area. Clearly I don’t have any skin in the game of gun rights, so it’s easy for me to come down on the side of increased regulation. And I recognize I’m wading into (for me) uncharted and dangerous waters, almost certainly outgunned.
 

That being said, I have some questions that (to me) are based on logic about guns in the home. I understand how people believe they are needed for the protection of family, hearth and home. But if you have children in the home, surely you keep your guns locked away, preferably with a trigger lock, and unloaded. (One experience I do have, sadly, very sadly, is attending the funeral of a child who was accidentally killed with his father’s handgun. It was over a decade ago and the family has yet to recover. He was a good kid, just a teenager showing his Dad’s gun to a friend.) Aren’t those the recommended safety procedures? Isn’t that why they sell gun safes at Cabella’s?

So my question is this: In the event of a home invasion of some kind, how much protection is this weapon? Under the stress of the moment, you’d have to retrieve your weapon, load it, unlock it and then accurately fire at the intruder(s) who probably make their living as armed criminals and also probably are in close proximity to your family. I prefer my odds with submission to almost any and all demands. Maybe you don’t, and my (serious) question is this, given the parameters laid out above (safe storage of firearms), how much help is this weapon, especially if, while you’ve been retrieving your weapon, your family is literally under the gun?

Admittedly I don’t live in a neighborhood where there have been lots of home invasions, or even burglaries. Quite frankly, neither do most of you, but never mind that. I do have an alarm system. But I don’t believe I can do much beyond that precaution that wouldn’t endanger my family more than protect it. Again, I admit that giving me a firearm of any stripe would make more of a danger to myself and loved ones than to any professional (or probably even amateur) criminal. It seems to me that the odds of an accident (I have a decorated police officer friend who shot his dishwasher, although not fatally) are better than the odds of thwarting an armed intruder. If their goal is my destruction, I don't like my chances, armed or not. If their goal is my property, they’re welcome to it.

Let me be clear. I am NOT trying to take away anyone’s right to own weapons for protection or recreation. I’m a realist, and while no guns in anyone’s house wouldn’t bother me, I recognize that there’s zero chance of that happening in America, although I’ve yet to hear a convincing argument for the right to own assault weapons or extended cartridges (if that’s the proper terminology). However, neither am I convinced that turning your home into an armed fortress is really a reasonable or, more importantly, safe, alternative.

It probably goes without saying I’m not a fan of arming teachers, although it might have the unintended consequence of improving classroom discipline. I’m pretty sure just drawing the weapon would quiet a class pretty quickly. As noted, I’m a realist, so I’m under no illusion that I’m going to change anyone’s mind on the issue, but I do think I’ve posed a reasonable question. I’d like to hear reasonable answers.